Barriers to involvement of Chinese demographers in climate change research

Abstract

The population and its development trends are important topics in the fields of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Although academic communities (like the IUSSP) have encouraged them to do so, few demographers have devoted themselves to research on climate change. In China, only a handful of demographers are engaged in climate change research. According to our review of literature published in Chinese core journals in the past decade (2005–2014), there are 17,210 papers with the keyword ‘climate change’, ‘carbon emissions’, or ‘emission of CO2’. Of these papers, only 254 (1.5%) also had the keyword ‘population’ or ‘demography’, and only 41 (0.2%) are classified as population studies. Why are so few demographers focusing on climate change research? Within the context of China, we will discuss the knowledge structure and research methods of demographers, the incentive system for scientific research, the population development trends, and the relationship between population and climate change. First, narrowly defined, the focus of demography is on theories and analytical methods of population change, including fertility, mortality, and the spatial distribution of the population. The field of climate change involves much wider horizons with grand narratives that go beyond the core demographic themes, such as industrial development, energy utilization, ocean and land coverage, and environmental change. It is difficult to use only demographic techniques when examining complicated climate change issues. At the same time, the demographic factors considered in climate change studies are generally represented by a single variable (the change in population size), and even this variable is often treated as exogenous by researchers from other disciplines. This narrow perspective tends to discourage demographers’ participation in such studies. In addition, many of the individuals who have received professional training in demography also work as